I am using Windows Media Player 11 (Beta) for past few months, I pretty much like it. The feature that I like most and use most is the new Library, I can sort songs with the headings Artist, Album, Songs, Genre, Year and Rating. Surf Back and forth through the library. Its amazing!

Download Now.

Labels: Media Player, Software, Windows

A Windows Vista blog was quoted

With Windows Vista and 2007 Office system, we didn't just redesign the software packages themselves, but are also introducing new packaging for the two products. The packaging has been completely revised and, we hope, foreshadows the great experience that awaits you once you open it. Check out the photos below.

2007 Office – Home & Student

Designed to be user-friendly, the new packaging is a small, hard, plastic container that’s designed to protect the software inside for life-long use. It provides a convenient and attractive place for you to permanently store both discs and documentation.

The new design will provide the strength, dimensional stability and impact resistance required when packaging software today. Our plan is to extend this packaging style to other Microsoft products after the launch of Windows Vista and 2007 Office system.

Yeah, no wonder why they delayed the product launch! ;)

Microsoft is serious about how their product looks, its taking the eye-candy approach. They know consumers are bored about same ol' windows, last time windows tried to do something different with the user-interface, the result came out to be teletubbies, Windows XP.

Few people loved it, few hated it. I personally liked it, hope Vista lives up to expectations.

Labels: Office, Windows, Windows Vista

Do you have a large collection of DVD's or DivX movies in your cub board, but don't know how to play them independently without a desktop PC or don't want to connect your PC to TV via TV-out for obvious reasons or Do you have a Playstation 2 but don't know how to make an optimum use of your investment? In 10 mins you will learn how you can convert your same old PS2 into a Home Entertainment HUB. DVD burners and DVD-Rom's becoming cheaper day-by-day, its really convenient to backup all your movies into DVD's or backup your mini library into compress Xvid or DivX file format. You can store as-many-as six movies into one DVD in Xvid format. Of course you can opt for new DivX players available in market, but wait, are these players good enough? I don't think so.

Why should one opt for PS2 rather than some media player? One, you can play cool PS2 games, all the neighboring kids will envy you and befriend you. Two, you can play DVD's, CD's. Three, you can play DivX and Xvid file format movies. Four, you can listen to all those MP3's that you have collected since 1972. Five, you can play all the movies from USB hard-disk.

Disclaimer! Ensure that you legally own the original movies which you backup in DivX or Xvid formats. I take no responsibility for any damage to your property. Take your own risk.

Step 1:

You Need

Hardware:

1. Playstation 2
2. Blank CD
3. USB Hard Disk (Optional)

Software

1. CD Gen PS2
2. SMS Player

Step 2:

SMS is a DivX and MP3 player for the PS2.

Using SMS, you can stream movies and music right to your TV. forget about all the set-top boxes, forget about the 'Media PC', if you have a PS2, you have all the hardware you need.

Features of SMS include:

• Smooth DivX AVI Playback at decent resolution
• Pan/Scan and zooming
• Subtitles support (SRT and SUB)
• Visual seek (Fast Forward and Rewind)
• Multiple language and character set support for subtitles other than English
• MP3 Playback
• AC3 Surround Support
• Full resolution
• Multilanguage
• Copy your movies and mp3's to your internal HDD!

SMS will read video files from a variety of sources:

• Network Streaming
• USB Drives
• Hard Drives (both the Official Sony HDD and any normal PC HDD)
• CD/DVD-ROM (and NO modchip required!)

SMS can even read DVD-RW discs specially formatted with the DVD-Video filesystem, or CD-R Discs formatted with CDDAFS without needing a modchip or any Swap tricks.

Download SMS Player.

Download CDGenPS2.

Download USB.irx file which is part of Naplink.

Download the SYSTEM.cnf file.

Note: There are other Media players for PS2, But I chose SMS because I find it most efficient.

Step 3:

Extract the CDGenPS2 zip file to any location on your drive. Launch the CDGenPS2 exe file.

Drag all the files in the application which you have download (i.e SMS.elf, USB.irx, System.cnf)

Right click on "System.cnf" and click "Edit", check "Fix LBA", type 12231 in LBA "text box"

Click File->Create CD then Save

Voila! Burn to a CD (not DVD) using any of your favourite CD-Writer software.

Step 4:

Place the newly created CD into your PS2. Power On.

After the SMS player loads up. Replace the CD, with any DVD or CD which contains the DivX / Xvid or MP3's, just browse and play the files.

If you want, I have created a CD-Image for you. Download SMS Player CD-Image Zip, extract it, then burn it to your CD.

Adios!

Labels: Fun, Gaming, Playstation, Software

Check out 50 coolest websites of 2005 from Time.com, I am desperately waiting for this years list.

The website introduces you the list with the following description. "How do we come up with our 50 best? Short answer: we take your suggestions, probe friends and colleagues about their favorite online haunts and then surf like mad. This year's finalists are a mix of newcomers, new discoveries and veterans that have learned some new tricks" It includes following categories

• Arts & Entertainment
• Blogs
• Lifestyle, Health & Hobbies
• News & Information
• Shopping

Go to http://www.time.com/time/2005/websites/ for complete list.

Labels: Fun

I was excited about the launch of new Firefox 2.0, I did all the possible research on other browsers. I was amazed what I found out when I typed http://www.ie7.com/.

Just try it out! You will be amazed too.

Labels: Firefox, Fun

No. No. I am talking about Mozilla Firefox 2.0. It's always been exciting to use new software and that too for free. I decided to put the most favorite Firefox under the scanner.

It's been long since the last major release. The Fox took its own time, like the newly bride, to get ready to walk the aisle.

At first glance Glassy, glassy. Glassy seems to be the keyword. I was expecting it, with all the software applications turning into glassy look since Microsoft first revealed its Operating System, Windows Vista (formerly Longhorn), it was natural for Firefox 2.0 to change its avatar.

What's New? Two distinct new features are introduced in this version, Spell-checking and Live Titles. Spell-checking is just like using a word processor when you are online. This is very useful for typing blogs or posting to newsgroups. The inbuilt dictionary checks for the words as you type and the misspellings are identified with a wormy red line. The dictionary is customizable, allows you to add new word. Warning! It's very addictive. Live Titles is more like RSS, but it updates your bookmarks. Compatibility Both IE7 and Firefox 2.0 have compatibility issues with the standards. Both don't pass the Acid2 Web Standards test, a test designed by the Web Standards Project. Opera 9 is the only browser which seems to pass the test.

Flavors Mozilla Firefox 2.0, unlike IE7, can run on most of the operating systems.

The official website revealed the new Firefox describing as "The award-winning Web browser is now faster, more secure, and fully customizable to your online life. With Firefox 2, we've added powerful new features that make your online experience even better."

Are these just tall-claims? Let's test and find out.

Faster There's been a dramatic improvement in the speed of the new browser, Firefox 1.5 was little slow when opening and closing the browser, I personally experienced it when I had a large collection of Bookmarks, but unlike Firefox 1.5, the new browser snaps on these events. But I still notice Memory clogging, unlike IE7, Firefox 2.0 is hungry on resources, but we have to take into consideration that Firefox is not just a browsers it's a framework. So as they say, it's faster.

Secure The new browser is secured than ever, a new feature that notifies you of cross-domain scripting, have you ever experienced the site you are visiting is fake and not real? like the e-mails I get from spammers to check my balance on my bank account which seems perfect. Bang! Then you know that it's a fake website asking for your account information. Firefox 2.0 is prepared for such security risks. So as they say, it's more secured. Customizable One of the reason for me liking Firefox is its flexibility. I first encountered Firefox at work sometime back, I heard one of my associate blabbing about it. I had to see it to believe it, I was amazed with this one feature i.e. Add-ons, Wow! I fell in love. It's the perfect example of "One size doesn't fit all". Unfortunately not all extensions designed for Firefox 1.5 work for the new browser. If you are installing this new sleek browser on top of the old one, a handy wizard will check to see if there are any new version available for the installed extensions. Apart from this you have plethora of add-ons to choose from. So as they say, it's more Customizable.

Award-winning Considering the above features of the all new Firefox 2.0, I can bet on it, this year Mozilla Firefox 2.0 will drag lot of awards to its shelf as it did in the past. So as they say, its award-winning. Verdict: Recommended There's lot of scope for improvement, like the compatibility issues, memory leaks. Mostly I am not comfortable about memory leaks.

I can hear the fox howling, making its presence felt.

Score: 3/5

Labels: Browser, Firefox, Software